The Lesson
by kmf
Summary: Relena had promised Hilde that Duo would be returned without a scratch. Technically bullet holes were not scratches but she was sure that Hilde would not see it that way.


Disclaimer: I do not own the GW characters, I have just been playing with them for a little while

Rating: M

Warnings: This is the edited version of the original 'The Lesson', a story I wrote back in 2003 and had completely forgotten about. If you wish to read the original which contains a lemon and is rated NC-17 please wander over to blissfulignorance com and look in the fanfiction forum. My GW stories are all archived there.

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The Lesson

by kmf

Part One

Duo eyed Heero nervously across the briefing table wondering just how he had managed to draw the short straw again. Every time there was the smallest bit of bad news to convey to Heero, he was always the one who was assigned the task. To the casual observer picking straws was a fair way to carry out the selection but as this was the third time in a row Duo had lost he was convinced that his fellow Preventors were cheating.

Looking at their faces around the table did little to soothe his suspicions. Wufei wore a look of smugness, his arms folded, his dark eyes staring at Duo. Trowa, on a temporary contract to cover Heero's absence, had his usual impassive face. However, his one visible eye was sparking with amusement that he did not bother to hide. Quatre, not actually a Preventor but a supplier of pertinent information through his business and diplomatic contacts, was looking at Duo with sympathy and compassion. However Duo was also sure there was underlying anticipation of the outrage that was bound to follow Duo's report.

Heero was giving a brief outline of his own mission to the Martian colony were he had been in charge of an operation to disband a small group of terrorists. They had been fortunate that Millardo Peacecraft had given them information pertaining to the cell early on in its development. Because of this the operation had gone smoothly with no deaths, minimal casualties and a zero expectation of resurgence.

Duo had begun to sweat as Heero's presentation came to a close. He glanced towards the door calculating the number of steps it would take him to reach it and flee to relative safety. He knew that Heero would hold him responsible, after all Duo had been in charge of Relena's security in Heero's absence. Movement drew his attention back to the table. Heero was sitting down and Quatre was placing a watch on the table, his finger poised over a button. Wufei and Trowa straightened in their chairs. Duo scowled realising that the bastards had a bet going on how long it would take him to get hit by Heero. A quick glance towards Lady Une revealed that he was not going to get any sympathy from her. In fact her anticipation showed that she was also in on the bet.

Heero glared at Duo across the table catching on to the fact that whilst his mission had proceeded smoothly not all had gone well whilst he was gone. Duo stood up, his chair scraping the tiled floor. He carefully stood behind it and slid it back into place under the table. He had no intention of his feet getting tied up in any obstacles during his planned mad dash to escape injury. Heero's eyes narrowed as he observed Duo's measured movements and the little beads of sweat that were forming on Duo's brow. Heero casually unbuttoned his Preventor jacket, allowing it to swing open revealing his holstered gun. Duo gulped and looked towards the others in a mute plea of help. Wufei's smirk widened.

"We are waiting Mr Maxwell," Lady Une's voice broke the charged silence and Duo hung his head breathing deeply.

"Mission parameters were to head the security team in charge of the protection of Foreign Minister Relena Darlian, a temporary secondment during Preventor Heero Yuy's absence. No attempts were made on the Minister's life, nor were any planned attempts detected." Duo paused and was pleased to see that Heero had relaxed slightly, his hand moving away from his gun.

"Is that all?" Lady Une asked, her voice startlingly innocent. Duo glared at her. Of course that was not all and Lady Une knew it. Her slightly curved mouth hid the laughter that she was trying to hold back.

Duo took a deep breath and prepared himself for the inevitable. "There was one security breech in the course of the mission," he said quickly. "A set of photos of the minister at a function were published in the Daily Sanq."

Heero's eyes had narrowed, and his fists had clenched. The Daily Sanq was a small tabloid paper that carried little real news, but lots of sordid and usually untrue stories about people in the public eye. It was also famous for its 'page three' girls, young women who would pose topless in the hope that their talents would be spotted and their own fame would follow.

"What photographs?" Heero demanded, his voice chillingly cold. Duo took a step back before he could help himself.

Lady Une produced a copy of the tabloid, and slid it across the highly polished surface of the table in Heero's direction. It came to a halt in front of him, slightly off centre so that Heero's head had to tilt to read the front-page heading.

The proud legend boasted "Leena in Love, a Foreign Affair". Below it was a slightly fuzzy photo of Relena dressed in a backless golden sheath dress sparkling with sequins, her blond hair piled up on the top of her head and curled to perfection. Her head was tilted upwards, happiness radiating from her wide smile, into the face of the tall, blond and tanned man who embraced her.

Heero blinked.

Duo rushed ahead, keen to get all the details out so that he could concentrate on running away as fast as he could. "The function was a private affair, no press allowed. PR thought that Relena deserved a break from the paparazzi, especially as she has agreed to so many interviews of late. The pictures were taken by a guest-"

"Pictures?" Heero demanded, looking up at Duo. Wufei, sitting next to Heero reached out a finger and pointed to some words at the bottom of the article. Heero, following his finger read the words 'continued page five'. He scowled and turned the pages to find more photos of Relena with the man. In all but one of them she smiled and he had his arm possessively around her.

In the last photo it was difficult to tell if she was smiling because the man had his mouth firmly pressed to hers. Heero's eyes narrowed even further.

"Who. Is. He?" Heero grated, unable to tear his eyes away from images.

Duo felt a little relief as he sensed Heero's anticipated anger towards him now being directed at the man who held Relena so closely to him. "Ambassador Stephen Maynard, age twenty eight. Native of Australia, Earth. Entered the diplomatic service after graduation, and has worked his way up to his current rank," Duo recited. He paused waiting for the information to filter through to Heero's brain, which was obviously distracted by the fuzzy prints in front of him.

"Perhaps now would be a good time to show Heero just how far this security breach has gone," Lady Une said cheerfully, nodding again to Duo.

The hairs bristled on Duo's neck as he got the feeling that Une had bet that Heero would be beating him up sooner rather than later. And that she was trying to push the odds in her own favour. Duo mentally winced as Heero's eyes left the image and drilled into his own. He took another step backwards.

"The photos.." Duo began, his voice squeaking with the tension he was feeling. He stopped, coughed and started again. "The photos were sold to Neo Nihon Ltd who produce audio visual goods. They have used a certain image to populate the demo disc for their new three dimensional video disc player, the 3DVD."

Duo paused and refused to look at Heero as Une got up from her seat to wheel over a large widescreen television with the new 3DVD player attached. While she fiddled with the remote control trying to get an image on the screen Heero had quietly stood up. Duo didn't realise that he had moved until he heard a voice frighteningly close to his ear.

"Who sold the pictures?"

Duo's eyes widened as he saw Une's smirk broaden. He turned his head slowly to see Heero standing beside him, his fist clenched and face grim.

"That would be Ambassador Maynard," Duo said slowly. "It was a colleague of his who took the shots. It seems that the security check failed to reveal that Ambassador Maynard is a bit of a social climber and uses publicity whenever he can use it to his advantage."

"And who neglected such a basic security check," Heero grated, his hand straying to his holster again.

Duo was saved from having to reply by Une's small cry of triumph as she managed to get a visual on the screen. All heads turned to the display. The fuzzy image of Ambassador Maynard kissing Relena had been augmented to crystal clear clarity. Une was fiddling with the remote, showing how the software could seamlessly zoom out and in and spin the image 360 degrees.

"Hmm, apparently it has a smart chip that guesses what the reverse angle should be like based on the front view," Une said innocently. She zoomed in to where the ambassador's hand was dangerously close to Relena's posterior, and spun the image 180 degrees to show that Relena's hand was a mirror image of his, pressed tightly against the ambassadors bottom. "Well...that is interesting.." she commented, looking towards Heero.

Heero stood transfixed by the image. Une looked at her watch and frowned. Obviously her time had come and gone. Quatre tried to look serious and concerned, but his face betrayed that he was now closest to winning the bet. Duo watched as Heero's hand moved to his holster and slowly removed his gun.

"I'm sorry man!" Duo said in a panic, holding his hands up and backing away. "Security was slack, I know. I didn't think that a simple photo would cause this much trouble. We can work on getting Neo Nihon to withdraw the disc. If they don't, hey - we can just blow their factory up, right? And anyway, this sort of publicity might just help the Princess during the next elections. Shows that she is just human, right?" Duo paled as Heero blinked, "Well, ok, perhaps that is not exactly what you want to hear right now but-" Duo stopped talking as Heero took the safety off his gun.

"Where is he?" he demanded "I'm going to kill him!"

All smirks faded around the table and the anticipation that Heero was going to beat up Duo changed to concern that Heero was going to hunt down and kill an important ambassador.

Lady Une frowned, and pushed her glasses back up her nose. "Now Heero.." she began. The sound of the television screen shattering just behind her stopped her mid sentence as she realised that Heero had vented a little of his rising frustrations by firing two shots to take out both the television and the 3DVD player. Professional to the end, she resisted the little shriek of fright that welled in her throat and instead glared at Heero.

"Mr Yuy! That was my 3DVD player," she growled.

"If you won't tell me where he is, I will just have to find him on my own," Heero paid no attention to his superior. He shoved Duo aside and moved to the door.

As one, Quatre, Wufei and Trowa, who had all stood when Heero had fired his shots, threw themselves at Heero in an effort to stop him exiting the room. Wufei, furthest away, leaped onto his chair then onto the table using it as a launching board. Duo watched the Asian man literally fly across the room, high tackle Heero around the neck and pull him and the other two pilots to the floor.

Duo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure - sit around and watch while Duo has the crap kicked out of him guys, but when Heero goes after some sleaze ball all run to restrain him!"

"Mr Maxwell.." Lady Une was watching him with narrowed eyes. "Help your fellow Preventors."

Duo grinned and pulled up his sleeves.

"With pleasure Sir!" he said moving to join the fray.

Part Two

What had promised to be a wonderful week due to Heero's scheduled return had turned into a grade A disaster. In fact, today was turning into one that Relena knew she would never live down nor forget.

The week had started innocently enough, until Une had tapped on her door five days ago. Une had apologetically advised her that Relena had dethroned the page three girl of The Daily Sanq and presented her with a copy of the odious paper.

Soon after Une had left the phones had started to ring. First it was the PR staff who were seriously concerned how this publicity would affect her forthcoming re-election campaign. Then it was the Press. It seemed that every reporter in the world was more than a little interested in her evening activities.

Relena had spent the entire day trying to stop blushing every time a reporter asked about her 'affair' with Ambassador Maynard. Between meetings she continually tried to get hold of Mr Maynard and ask him to refute the suggestion that he and she were a couple. Every time she was fobbed off; Ambassador Maynard was unavailable.

If that was not bad enough, Une had further embarrassed her yesterday by showing her the new demo for the 3DVD player which showed her and Stephen in mortifying detail and at the most embarrassing angles. Once the initial shock of seeing just how large her bottom looked at certain angles, anger had taken over. How dare Stephen prostitute her for the sake of his career? And what would this do to her own career?

Again she had attempted to contact the absentee Ambassador, this time she was given the excuse that he was in conference and could not be disturbed. His aide had smiled at her prettily and asked that she try again later. Relena had hung up on her and scowled so deeply that her own aide had taken fright and hidden for the rest of the day. Relena had to field her own phone calls for that afternoon, and after receiving five calls from various press agencies asking if she and Mr Maynard were now living together, she had left the phone off the hook.

To compound matters, she had completely forgotten that Heero was due back today. Her excuse was that she had worked late to make up time lost trying to talk politely to the press and attempting to talk rudely to Ambassador Maynard. When she had arrived home she had poured herself several stiff drinks and quietly got tipsy. When morning came she had found herself slouched on her couch with stiff neck, a large headache and an overwhelming desire to go out and shoot the Ambassador.

A quick shower, and one strong coffee later her mood was no better. In her irritation she had put a ladder in her stocking (last pair), completely botched her usually neat French roll hairstyle, and broken a nail. When her guard detail knocked on her door to announce that her car was ready she had opened the door glaring. Her mood had not lightened when she saw one guard mouth 'PMD' to the other.

Several hours into her day Hilde had called, her normally bright eyes concerned and worried. Relena had instantly put her own worries behind her and concentrated on her friend. However, what Hilde had to say bought Relena soundly back to the problem of her exposure.

Hilde was worried about Duo. Duo had been in charge of security in Heero's absence and therefore was responsible for the breach that had resulted in Relena's groped bottom being so widely circulated. Hilde had looked apologetic for this, but Relena had assured her that she did not hold Duo responsible in any way. There had been many people at the charity function with cameras, but only one had chosen to sell pictures to promote his own interests. Hilde had looked a little relieved that her friend was not holding her husband responsible, but then looked serious again.

"But Heero is going to kill him when he finds out today," she said, her eyes pleading for Relena to intervene.

It was then that Relena remembered that Heero would have arrived back that morning, and was probably in the debriefing room at that very moment. Her eyes went wide, her face white. How could she have forgotten! Sure she was stressed, but how could she possibly forget Heero?

Putting her politician's smile on she assured Hilde that Duo would come home tonight without a scratch on him, then she terminated the call. Standing up so quickly that her chair crashed to the ground, she all but gave her aide heart failure as she strode quickly from the room demanding to know her schedule for the afternoon as she went.

Relena strode down the hall with purpose, her face steely with determination that caused all who would stop her to move out of her way with alacrity. Her heels clicked as she strode, her pace as wide as the narrow skirt of her pale blue suit would allow. Close behind her half running was her young aide grasping hold of a notebook from which he was breathlessly trying to recite Relena's calendar for the afternoon.

"You have a lunch time meeting with Mr Toole, the head of PCC Information with regard to their proposal to subsidise information system for secondary care institutions in the third world colonies. Then at two you are to meet up with Mr Burrows and Mr Taylor who are jointly in charge of border control between earth and colonies. They have concerns about increasing numbers of people claiming refugee status from colony 2707. At 1500hrs you have a speech to give to the members of the-" her aide dropped some papers, bent to pick them up. Realising Relena hadn't waited for him ran after her. Catching up he was about to continue when Relena held up a hand.

"Cancel it!" she declared, lowering her hand now that the aide's attention had been wrestled away from his notes.

"...er, the speech?" the aide asked, frowning and wondering how he was ever going to reschedule it this side of Christmas.

"All of them. All my afternoon appointments," Relena walked on, peering at the door numbers as she went.

"But…but…but…" the aide stopped in his tracks wondering if he was dreaming. The minister never cancelled meetings, never took time off sick, never refused to do her duty; until now that was. "What will I tell them?"

Relena stopped and spun on her heels, her loose hair fanning out around her before settling back on her shoulders. Her face frowned at the young man, before softening as she took pity on him. "Tell them that an emergency came up," she said. "Apologise to them and tell them that I will reschedule as soon as I can." She raised an eyebrow until her aide nodded.

The frown came back on Relena's face as she proceeded down the hall again. The excuse of 'an emergency' was almost certainly not a lie.

The sound of gunfire made her stop in her tracks for a millisecond, before she started running down the hall to the room from where she knew it would have originated. She had promised Hilde that Duo would be returned without a scratch. Technically bullet holes were not scratches but she was sure that Hilde would not see it that way.

A small crowd of people had gathered outside of meeting room five, the majority of them referring to their watches. When a couple shook their heads and walked away despite the sounds of fighting going on inside the room, Relena concluded that there was a sweepstake going on to see how quickly Duo would escape from his meeting with Heero.

She cleared her throat, frowning at the remaining people who quickly dispersed. Rumours of the normally pleasant minister's now harsh temper had gone before Relena and none of the staff wanted to goad her further. When the audience had cleared Relena took a deep breath and opened the door.

Wufei, who sported a bruised eye that promised to turn into a spectacular shiner was on the floor in front of her holding down Heero. Trowa's hair was so mussed up that both his eyes were visible. Duo was in the process of snapping on a pair of handcuffs onto Heero's wrists that were held behind his back. Une was looking mournfully at her new 3DVD player and Quatre was lying unconscious, his nose bloody.

Heero stopped struggling as he saw a pair of high-heeled court shoes in front of his nose. Looking up slowly, his eyes traced up bare shapely ankles and calves, dimpled knees to where the shapely legs disappeared into a smart blue skirt. Looking up further he eye took in narrow hips, a slim waist, rounded breasts, a long elegant neck before halting on a scowling face. He blinked and gulped. Relena glared at him coldly, mentally making a note to apologise to Sally and Dorothy, and wondering how she possibly would be able to replace Une's prized 3DVD player when they were like gold dust.

"Get up!" she said, her voice like ice.

Duo got off Heero, and Wufei and Trowa pulled him to his feet. Trowa quickly then went to Lady Une's side comforting her over the loss of her new toy, whilst Wufei poured a glass of water and tipped it over Quatre. Quatre spluttered and started to regain his senses at the sensation of ice water hitting his face.

Heero glared at Relena.

Relena glared back.

Duo grinned and waved from behind Heero at Relena "Hiya Princess" he said, chirpy in the knowledge that for once he had evaded a sound beating.

Heero, without interrupting his death glare contest with Relena, swiftly kicked backwards, his foot accurately connecting with Duo's groin. Duo's eyes went wide, then rolled backwards in his head, his hands automatically cradling his damaged jewels. He sank to his knees and rolled to his side in a foetal position groaning in pain. Relena sighed and added Hilde to the list of apologies she would have to be giving out.

"Mr Yuy. My office. Now!" she said, and spun on her heels, not waiting to see if he would follow. Peering through the door were a number of curious members of staff, all bemoaning the fact that no one had picked that Yuy would take out all his fellow pilots. Relena rolled her eyes as she walked through them - really it was the most logical outcome. She made another mental note to make sure that next time there was a book out on Heero she would take odds. She was bound to win.

Part Three

Relena walked swiftly back to her office, not bothering to check and see whether Heero followed. She entered the room venting some of her anger on the door, which flew open slamming into the wall. Her aide looked up from his desk in surprise at her as she stomped in but any words he was about to utter were lost as Heero entered behind her. The aide took one look at the handcuffed Heero and fled for the second time in two days, slamming the door behind him. Relena watched him go with an exasperated look on her face wondering why she got lumbered with such a timid man. However a glance at Heero made her want to follow her aide screaming for help. She held the corner of her desk for support as her legs turned to jelly

Heero was a master of the deadly glare. But the look he was giving Relena was his worst yet. His head was tilted forward causing his hair to tumble down his forehead half shielding his cold eyes. His mouth was a thin line and a muscle in his cheek twitched; a sure sign that he was having difficulty controlling his temper.

"Let. Me. Kill. Him!" he ground out around clenched teeth.

Relena felt her legs strengthen a little from the dessert they had become. At least he didn't want to kill her. She felt a little smile tweak her mouth and walked up to Heero, smoothing the hair back from his eyes.

"No," she whispered "You don't kill anymore."

Heero blinked. "Let. Me. Hurt. Him!" he growled

"Nothing would give me more pleasure than allowing you to go out and shoot Ambassador Maynard's kneecaps," she said softly, continuing to stroke his hair and watching the twitch diminish under her ministrations. "However, he is a diplomat and, regrettably, a fairly senior one. Think of the problems you would cause me - the paperwork alone would see me burning the midnight candle for at least a week," Relena stretched up on tip toes so that she could place a light kiss on the side of his mouth. "I missed you!"

She wrapped her arms around him, snaking them between his pinned arms and his back and buried her face in his chest. She felt the tension start to ebb from his body, and he bent his head to nuzzle her neck - his arms being otherwise engaged.

"I missed you too," he said quietly. After a brief pause, he pulled his head back to look at her. "But maybe more than you missed me. You seem to have had a lot of parties to attend, people to socialise with. You appeared to be enjoying yourself. A lot." His tone was faintly accusing.

"Oh please Heero!" Relena bristled "That was the night I received word that you would soon be home so of course I was happy! You really don't believe I was a willing participant in that kiss!"

Heero's eyes narrowed again and the twitch was back. "He forced you?" he demanded.

Relena folded her arms. "He didn't force me so much as he took me by surprise," she said. "Within two seconds I had pushed him away. You know I am more than capable of taking care of myself," Relena felt her own ire begin to increase.

Heero suddenly sank to a crouching position, rolled back onto his back until his hips were off the ground, his weight supported by his shoulders. With a wriggle that would have impressed a contortionist he moved his bound hands past his posterior, tucking his legs through the loop the handcuffs made, so that his hands were now to his front rather than his back. He rolled forward again and came neatly to his feet, and swiftly slipped his arms over her head so that she was now imprisoned in his arms. He pulled her tightly into his embrace, his mouth dangerously close to hers "Really?" he smirked.

Relena raised an eyebrow at the challenge and shoved hard at his chest whilst tucking a foot behind his. Heero fell backwards and Relena had to stifle a scream as his bound arms pulled her with him. They landed on the carpeted floor, Heero's smirk still visible and his eyes twinkling.

"You fell back on purpose," Relena accused trying to push herself up, but the circle of Heero's arms prevented her from doing so.

"I thought you said that you could take care of yourself?" Heero murmured, obviously enjoying the way Relena wriggled trying to get herself free.

Relena glared. "Most of my dates wear tuxedos without matching handcuffs."

It was Heero's turn to glare. "Relena.." he growled warning her not to taunt him as he allowed her to free herself from his hold.

She sat upright straddling him, her skirt hiked high up her thighs revealing creamy skin, her blouse had come a little loose from their struggle and now gaped enticingly. Her hair hung around her shoulders and her eyes sparkled with anger. She looked fierce and beautiful and Heero felt his suppressed desire for her rise.

"Heero, you really need to start trusting me," she said. Sensing his desire she didn't move from her position of straddling his hips. "I would never do this with anyone other than you," she leaned forward and touched her lips to his kissing him gently before running her tongue over his lips encouraging him to open them. He did so willingly, groaning as she tasted his mouth deeply, stroking his tongue with hers. He groaned again as she broke the kiss, and started to nibble on his ears and neck whispering, "…and I would never do this."

Heero pulled against the restraints of his handcuffs, eager to hold and touch her properly, but she pulled away placing a hand on his and shook her head. "Please Heero, dislocated thumbs are such a turn off!" she said as she started to loosen his tie, unbuttoning the top buttons and stroking his neck with her cool fingers, "And anyway, I am giving you a lesson of what I would never do with my 'dates', not a lesson on what I would not let my dates do to me"..

By now she had opened his shirt to his waist and pushed it open revealing his smooth toned chest. Any retort that Heero was about to make was cut off as she traced circles with her fingers around his nipples. She watched with interest as his breathing became shallow, his nipples hardened and his mouth curved into a little smile. Relena lowered her mouth to gently kiss his chest, moving down towards his naval. She nuzzled his tight stomach before demonstrating what she would never do with a date.

Much later, Heero was breathing heavily, his cheeks flushed and his eyes closed. As soon as he was able to focus again, he looked at her, a smirk upon his face.

"Is the lesson over?" he asked, pulling her so that she lay prone across his body, caressing her hair with both his manacled hands.

She nodded, her face still rosy with desire and love. She sighed with bliss at the sensation of being held in his arms once more and pressed herself hard against him. She felt Heero kiss her head gently. After a moment he spoke quietly.

"I do trust you," he said "But I do get angry when I read about my wife having an affair with some brainless diplomat."

Relena felt herself smile as he admitted his jealousy. "An extremely good looking brainless diplomat." she teased.

"..." Heero scowled

"Very witty too," Relena added, "Oh, and a good dancer."

Heero's scowl deepened. "If you want me to get angry again, just keep going."

Relena pushed herself up on her elbow and smiled lovingly down at her spouse. "You know I prefer my men to be dark and dangerous. In fact, there is only one man in the entire universe who fits the specifications perfectly," she reached out a hand and smoothed a wayward lock from his eyes.

"I still want to hurt him," Heero relaxed at her caress, savouring the closeness that he had missed during his mission.

Relena grinned again. "I am sure that you will be able to encourage him into issuing a press statement explaining why he took advantage of a happily married woman," she paused noting how his eyes brightened, "Without physical contact," she added, watching him scowl a little. "Verbal threats and mental torture, however, are quite acceptable. And if Duo is ever able to walk again I am sure that he will be happy to assist."

Heero's eyes brightened again as he considered the mission parameters and just how he could inflict enough mental anguish to satisfy himself. Relena rolled her eyes slightly as she saw the wheels in his head turn, watching how his hands automatically pulled against the handcuffs that still restrained him. She was very grateful that she was not on the receiving end of Heero's wrath. She stopped stroking his hair bringing his attention back to her.

He moved his head slightly and kissed her hand, nodding "I did enjoy your lesson," his eyes hooded, taking in her mussed clothing and swollen lips. "I am looking forward to the test so I can prove how much I learned."

Relena giggled, lowering her head and whispered in his ear. "Would that be a written or oral test Mr Yuy?" before gasping as Heero demonstrated his preference.


End file.
